


Summer & Snapchat

by countrygirlsfun



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Poetry, Sunburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7323121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countrygirlsfun/pseuds/countrygirlsfun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working at Samwell for the summer, Dex forgets to use sunscreen one day. Just <em>one day</em>. </p><p>Nursey, surprisingly, helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer & Snapchat

Will has always done what he has to to take care of himself.

If it meant working on his Uncle’s lobster boat for three summers to get hockey gear? He faced it, even if he gets seasick incredibly easily.

If it meant working to be the best player on his team to get a scholarship to college? He put in the time.

If it meant getting straight A’s all through high school to get a full ride scholarship? He slept a little less to study a little more.

So he is accustomed to working his ass off. And he’s used to curveballs being thrown his way. So when his mom calls, right after the team finishes the season, right before school starts amping up towards finals, to tell him if he comes home he won’t be able to work for his uncle, he adjusts.

Apparently, his younger brother already offered to work for Uncle Dan and since there’s really only work for the two of them, if he wants to spend the summer at home he’d had to find a job in town. Which would probably be as a cashier at the grocery store. Because his town is basically Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls and there’s not that much available in employment options.

It takes a little rushed paperwork given the semester is already close to an end, but he gets it worked out.

So what if he’s staying at Samwell all summer long while the rest of the team goes their separate ways. So what if he’s on the grounds keeping crew for the next three months. And so what if he has to bounce back and forth between the dorms and the Haus to look after the place.

He has a better paycheck than if he’d gone home. He has all hours access to both the computer labs and the wellness center. He even gets to have access to Faber and get in some ice time a couple times a week.

Between snapchat, twitter, the group texts and occasional skype calls, he doesn’t have too much time to feel lonely. He even keeps up pretty regular communication with Nursey, which is surprisingly…nice.

For the first couple weeks after class ends, everyone makes an effort to keep in touch with him and each other he knows. But as everyone gets into their own summer jobs and activities, slowly the communication thins out. By mid-June, the only person he’s putting the effort into talking to is Nursey of all people.

It’s just, it’s easy, probably too easy to just send him random bits from his day. Nurse will send him snaps of his pretentious coffee shop, or the breakfast nook in the Brownstone. But the captions never fail to make Will laugh, at least for a moment. And in response, Dex will send pics of the gardens as he weeds them out, or of the Gator he drives around to water the hanging pots. So it’s normal then, for him to start conversation with his d-man.

Steve, the main guy who runs the lawn mower called in sick mid-morning and Dex had been given the man’s tasks on top of his own. He did all his own stuff, weeding, watering, and pruning the flower bed at the south campus entrance, all before noon. Lunch was quick; just enough food, far too little water.

Still, he pushed onward, he had a lot of land to cover and he had no time to waste if he still wanted to get in a weight training workout for the day.

He got a little caught up in his thoughts, the monotony of the back and forth passes on the riding mower. With the sun high overhead, he got overheated in his thick cotton uniform t-shirt. He didn’t think about it much when he pulled it over his head and tucked it behind him on the seat. He got done in good time, quick enough that he made it to the gym before supper. He ended up skipping his scheduled ice time, running footwork drills, because even after eating a little at the dining center he still felt pretty lightheaded.

And well, he’s sure thinking about how stupid it was to ditch his shirt now. His skin is a deep, deep pink, all over his torso, his neck, shoulders, face. Even his ears hurt which shouldn’t be allowed. Still, it’s not so bad that he won’t be able to sleep he thinks so he eases himself into bed. Bitty had made up Jack’s old bed with the Haus spare sheets and he’s never been so grateful for his teammate’s foresight as he is in that moment.

Waking up in the morning he learns a new definition of pain. His head is throbbing, his skin is burning, his legs are sore from lifting weights and he kinda feels like he’s gonna throw up.

So he snaps Nursey, just to distract himself.

He doesn’t think he can sit up without vomiting, and moving his arm to grab his phone pulls enough at his skin that he has second thoughts about the whole thing. He takes a picture of his chest/collarbone/neck area and just says the first thing that comes to mind.

_I have made a mistake_

He doesn’t even get the chance to put his phone down before the notification goes from ‘delivered’ to ‘opened’ and then it’s loading a new snap from Nursey. He opens it to see Nursey’s breakfast, oatmeal with fruit and coffee, typical. But his words are short, disbelieving.

  _You cannot be serious._

Dex sighs and just swipes over to chat with him instead.

 _I had extra mowing duty_  
_Had to stay out all afternoon and my t-shirt was too hot_  
_Wasn’t thinking about sunscreen_  
_Not like I could stop working to go buy some anyway_

His eyes flutter shut while he waits for a response. He thinks about how he needs to get himself something to drink probably. And some painkillers wouldn’t be remiss either. When his phone chimes for a new snap, he thinks about how he’s going to have to call in sick to work. He really doesn’t want to, he’s never called in sick a day in his life, but he can’t even lift his head from his pillow. He has no choice.

He calls his boss before he reads whatever Nursey decided to say to give him crap. Thankfully, Steve is back and can cover if anything comes up that Dex should have been available for. The thing of it is though, he’s made damn sure that he’s done his work right and as quickly as possible since he started working.

There were too many whispers going around about the spoiled school athlete, signing up to work grounds keeping just to stay on campus and sluff off for the summer. Which, given he’s working, taking two classes and still training during the off-season, couldn’t have been further from the truth. It’s with that in mind, the way he’s already impressed his boss with his work ethic and quality work that makes it easier to believe the man doesn’t mind Dex calling in sick.

He has to pause after the phone call ends to catch his breath again and then he lifts his phone away from his ear and checks to see what Nursey sent him.

 _I’m going to assume that if you don’t have sunscreen you also don’t have basic first aid right now either_  
_Have you had anything to drink?_  
_Dex_  
_Will_  
_Are you still conscious?_  
_Go drink something the minute you wake up again and read this_

He can’t help but smile, even though it hurts his face, at the way Derek “chill” Nurse gets decidedly unchill so quickly sometimes. He decides it’s going to be better to move now and risk vomiting to get himself some fluids since the last time he had anything to drink was a solid 12 hours ago. Still, he takes it pretty slowly as he sits up, skin on his chest crinkling and stretching across his back with the movement.

The pain kind of makes him dizzy so he decides to screw the slow and easy and throws himself out of the bed, aiming for the door, or a wall to catch himself on. He’s panting through it when his phone buzzes from where he’s clutching it tightly in his fist.

 _Bitty said there’s Gatorade in the downstairs fridge_  
_Get yourself a couple and drink all of them_  
_There should be crackers too_  
_You need salt to retain the water bro_

Dex rolls his eyes, like he hasn’t been an athlete for the majority of his life. He’s been dehydrated once or twice. Still, if he’s being honest, concern is a lot nicer than being chirped. He already feels shitty enough, he doesn’t need anybody giving him grief, or worse yet, making some crack about him being a redhead with pale skin.

So he starts to make his way gingerly down the two flights of stairs to the basement. The snaps had been enough of a distraction from the pain washing over him that he feels steadier already in the plan. He eases himself down the first flight of stairs, stopping only for a moment at the bottom to take a deep breath and then he heads for the kitchen to search out some crackers. He thanks whoever is listening that one of the last Haus meals Bitty made was soup and that there’s still oodles of cracker options in the cupboard by the fridge.

He tucks the package in the pocket of his sweatpants and opens the fridge, double checking there’s nothing there that could save him a trip down another set of stairs. His legs feel like lead from his workout and he doesn’t know if he’d make it back up two flights of stairs back to his temporary bed.

He nearly cries when he sees the bottom drawer is filled with bottled water and two blue Gatorades. Chowder’s favorite color. He snaps a picture of the bottles in his hand, catching the briefest glimpse of the sunburn on his arm and just says “I owe you for these when you get back.” As the picture sends, he sees he missed a snap that had come in from Nurse.

Still, the response comes from Chowder before he can even hover his thumb over Derek’s name. So he opens the message from Chris, which is just a picture of him smiling that “nothing is wrong in the world” smile from some beach in Cali.

_Don’t worry about it bro! Drink up!_

Dex huffs a laugh even as he ducks down and grabs a bottle of water to add to his pile of supplies to take back upstairs. Thankfully, his legs didn’t get sunburned at all, they’re just sore from working out too hard while dehydrated. But they’re also really stiff so he kinda wants to take an ice bath, and if he ducks his shoulders into the cool water, what could it hurt?

He opens the freezer and takes out the two full bags of ice that Holster had left in there to free up space in the basement freezer. He sighs as the cool bags hit his hot skin and he nearly drops everything in his hands in sheer relief. Instead he starts to make his way back up the stairs, back up to the bathroom he’d cleaned first thing after Jack and Shitty moved out.

Going up the stairs is worse than going down and takes about twice as long. Long enough that he feels the ice melting slightly and dripping down his abs and into his sweats. He groans as he pauses to catch his breath. How could he be so stupid?

Dex makes it, doesn’t bother closing the bedroom door behind himself. He tosses the crackers on the bed as well as the bottled water and one of the Gatorades. He keeps the ice and the other bottle of Gatorade in his hand and walks into the bathroom. His phone chimes again but now that he’s moving he doesn’t want to stop until he’s got everything set up.

He dumps the leaky ice bags in the sink, plugs the drain on the tub and starts running cold water to fill it. He has to go back out to his pile of clothes on the desk in the bedroom to find a towel and then he’s all set. With the drink and his phone on the edge of the tub, and the towel hanging over the shower rod he goes to the bags of ice, rips them open and dumps them in the cold water.

That shock of cold is nothing he can prepare for, even if he’s done this a thousand times before. Distantly he thinks he shouldn’t actually put his severely irritated skin on his back and torso into the ice cold water. So instead of submerging himself like he wants to he grabs his phone to see what Nursey has to say now, what advice he has to give.

 _Don’t roll your eyes at me Poindexter_  
_Who knows how addled your brain is from all the sun_  
_Do you plan on answering me or just reading these?_  
_I feel ignored, William_

Then a picture came through, it’s of a very scenic looking road and Dex’s breath catches in his throat at the message across the pic.

  _Omw. Whatever you do don’t take an ice bath._

He laughs out loud once he gets past the implication that Nursey is driving up to Samwell. At least that little voice in the back of his brain had been right about keeping his sunburned skin out of the nice cold water. He takes advantage of current circumstances and snaps a picture of his legs and feet in the icy water.

  _Uh…too late bro_

A minute passes after he sends it and he’d be concerned before he remembers that Nursey is driving. Holy goodness. Nursey is driving up to Samwell from New York, presumably to take care of his French fried butt. He’d honestly be overthinking Derek’s motives but he just doesn’t have the energy.

 _You have got to be kidding me_  
_Do you /want/ nerve damage?_  
_Please tell me you have Tylenol or Advil at least_  
_Actually, I’m just going to assume you have nothing to help yourself in this situation_

Dex laughs lightly as he realizes that once again, talking with Derek has been distracting him from the pain that’s…everywhere still. Ugh. He drops his head back, banging it lightly against the shower wall. How could he let this happen?

The timer for his ice bath starts ringing on his phone and he’s grateful he can actually move his legs to stand up out of the cold water without too much stiffness or pain. He stretches the backs of his legs as he leans down to pull the drain plug and let the cold  water rush out.

Dex should take a quick warm shower, and as much as he wants to just go curl back up in bed before he passes out, he knows he’ll start shivering if he doesn’t warm up his system again. It’s the fastest warm-up shower ever and he has to use a lot of effort to keep the spray on his legs and away from his upper body, but he does it.

By the time he’s peeled off his soaking wet boxer briefs, wrung them out and laid them over the edge of the tub to dry, he is exhausted. He manages to get a fresh pair of underwear on and drinks half a bottle of Gatorade before he, slowly, collapses on his bed again. He’s in that not quite asleep, not fully awake haziness that comes with this level of pain and internal assault on his body.

He’s been thinking about what it means that Nursey just picked up and left his comfortable brownstone to come back to Samwell. They’d gotten closer throughout the season, once they stopped wanting to drop gloves and punch things out on the ice. If he’s honest, ever since Chowder started dating Caitlin, Nurse has been his best friend at Samwell.

Although, best friend probably isn’t the right term.

There’s probably a different name to call the person you want to kiss on a regular basis.

Hell, there’s probably a list. But Derek is the poet of the two of them, not Will, so he hasn’t tried to put a name to it. Mostly because he firmly believes that Derek Nurse is completely out of his league to date. Most people would probably believe that, skinny, freckled, redheaded, big eared William Poindexter is not even attractive enough to be friends with the beauty and charm of Derek Nurse.

Thank God for Samwell Men’s Hockey.

Will drifts again to a frame of mind where he doesn’t have to think about the feelings involved with his current situation. He doesn’t know how long he lays there like that, more asleep than awake, before his phone buzzes next to his pillow. It keeps chiming, signaling more and more snaps coming in.

 _I hope you’re alive_  
_You realize you haven’t responded to me?_  
_I’m at Target, gathering supplies_  
_I’ll be there in maybe 30 min_  
_Bro, give me something here._  
_Should I be calling for an ambulance at this point_

As much as it hurts, Dex pulls his other hand up to hold the phone and types a response.

 _Please don’t_  
_I can’t afford to pay for an ambulance bro_  
_…_  
_Some Advil would be stellar right about now though_

The chat notification goes from delivered to opened right away but when Nursey doesn’t send anything back immediately, Dex puts his phone down so he can rest his arms. He doesn’t realize he falls completely asleep then until he’s waking up to the sound of the front door opening and closing. He tries to reach for his phone and gives up, his arm laying across his chest a little uncomfortably.

He can hear the way Derek runs up the stairs, feet pounding on the old creaky wood. But it’s not enough to give him the energy to open his eyes; somehow he is even more tired now than when he laid in bed after his ice bath. He realizes distantly that he should have had more to drink when he was awake, but it’s too late now; maybe he’ll miraculously wake up and be able to stomach drinking and eating. Ugh, what are the chances.

“Holy god,” he hears from the doorway but all he can do is groan.

Then there are gentle hands cradling his face, cool and softer than he anticipated.

“Dex. Will, hey, open your eyes for me?” Nursey says, voice quiet and worried.

It takes what seems to be an unfair amount of energy to open his eyes but he manages it.

“Hey,” he rasps, throat dry and now that he’s awake, he can feel every inch of skin that’s tingling and hot.

Nursey sighs with a suspicious amount of relief and pulls his hands back. They stare at each other for a long moment, not saying anything at all and Derek is the one to break the moment. He pulls back from hovering over Will and bursts into motion.

“You’re ridiculous,” he says, with far less heat than he once would have uttered the words with. He’s pulling things out of Target bags and putting them on the bed, the nightstand. There’s a whole lot of stuff and for a dizzying moment Will thinks about how much he’s going to owe Nursey after this is all over.

Not in just favors and putting up with endless chirping. But money, dollars, cold hard cash that he is going to have to pay Nursey for all the stuff he bought and brought to the Haus to take care of him. It’s a little worrying given he needed to use his paychecks for school supplies; he was hoping to splurge and get himself a couple new pairs of jeans too.  

Nursey is still banging around, unaware of the spiral of worry Will has sent himself into as he lays there, looking at the ceiling.

“Okay, you idiot,” he says sounding almost…fond as he puts a straw to Will’s lips. “Now drink.”

Will happily starts taking long pulls from the straw, sucking up the lukewarm Gatorade quickly. He hears the water run in the bathroom and then Nursey is walking back across the squeaky floor.

“This is gonna be cold,” he warns Dex before there’s a damp towel being laid on his chest, instantly cooling his hot skin. Still, it’s kind of a shock after being so hot, from his own skin and from the air conditioning-less Haus. He jerks but it’s a weak movement, even by his standards.

“You’re okay, dude, just let it cool you off.”

Will nods even as he closes his eyes, taking another long drink from the straw in the Gatorade bottle.

“I’ll be downstairs; yell if you need something,” he offers and Will just nods his head in response. He feels so much better even with that small amount of liquid rehydrating him.

Of course, it takes another two bottles of water, interspersed with crackers and bites of banana for him to feel like a human being again. It’s odd, how good Nursey seems to be at nursing Dex back to health. He’d been incredibly gentle with Dex’s stupidly fragile skin and there’s been a surprising lack of chirping. When he gets to the point where he can sit up without feeling like he’s going to pass out, Derek walks in with a pitcher of some dark liquid and a clean cloth.

“This is supposed to help,” he explains, gesturing for Dex to lean forward so he can start on his back.

“Please tell me there’s no blisters back there, I can’t tell just from feeling,” Will admits and he hears Derek huff a laugh under his breath.

“No, there’s no blisters. Not that it isn’t pretty bad, but at least you avoided that.”

Dex sighs in relief at the cool liquid, shoulders relaxing as he slumps forward.

“What is that?” he asks, voice a little slurred and Nursey laughs lightly at him again.

“It’s tea; black tea with mint,” he tells him even as he continues gently wiping across Dex’s back and sides.

That’s…weirdly specific and not something Nursey probably knew prior to this happening.

“Did you look up sunburn remedies while you drove here?” he asks sincerely and Derek freezes for a moment before he continues his ministrations.

“Maybe, are you complaining about the results of a quick google search?” he responds, a little defensively.

But Will wasn’t making fun of him, he is just a little surprised at the effort Nursey has put into taking care of him. He doesn’t rise to the argumentative tone like he once would, both not having the energy and not wanting a fight.

“Nah, man, just curious how you knew what to do,” he says, sincerely.

“Well, you obviously weren’t in a position to take care of yourself…” he trails off and Will looks up at him as he hesitates. “Couldn’t let you suffer alone,” he admits and Dex smiles gently, hoping it comes across as sincere as he means it to be.

“Thanks,” he says quietly before looking back down at his hands, unable to keep looking into those stupidly captivating green eyes anymore. “I wasn’t chirping you, bro. I appreciate the assist.”

He peeks up at Derek, butterflies fluttering in his gut when he sees that little smile on his face as he wrings out the cloth.

“Lay back, let me get your chest now,” he says by way of a response and Dex allows the conversation to drop. He didn’t have anything else to say anyway, not without making it awkward.

So he lays back down on his back, sighing from the relief the tea has provided to his skin. His eyes close as he lays his head on his pillow and he fights to keep his hands still at his sides and out of the way. Nursey works in silence then, gently applying the cool tea to his chest, working his way from his neck downward.

Once Derek gets past his chest, Will opens his eyes a little to watch his face, unable to resist the peaceful moment happening between them.

“What’s that all about?” Dex mumbles after studying Derek’s expression. “That's your writing face.”

Nursey hesitates slightly, looking up at Dex before he shrugs, “I'm always writing now that it's summer, I don’t have class to worry about.”

“What great poetic verses did my hideously sunburnt body inspire?” Will asks, mostly kidding but Derek shrugs again and ducks his head, hiding his face as he dips the cloth in the tea.

He sounds almost nervous as he says, “The sun-“

“Ah, clever,” Will interrupts and Nursey glares at him a little, sticking his nose up exaggeratedly before he continues both his words and his ministrations, applying the tea all over Will’s chest again.  

“The sun,” he begins again softly, “the light when days begin; leaves kisses on our skin. Which warms the earth; and grows those of us on it,” he utters, quiet and slow, sounding more steady and more serious than Will has ever witnessed. “It brings comfort when; long nights come to pass.”

His face changes then, from a timid smile to an angry sneer. “It is a friend to many; But to me an enemy,” he nearly growls. “How could you?” he asks so harshly, Dex thinks for a minute he’s stopped writing poetry in his head and is yelling at him.

“The sun!” Derek scoffs, “So vital to our needs; Yet it brings me to my knees,” he continues, annoyance in his tone, “For its rays have shown their power; In the harm it caused by the hour.”

He’s left the cloth, laid out across Will’s chest, and his voice goes soft again, as soft as his touch when he trails his fingers across Will’s shoulder.  

“My fingers burn as they mark; the damage wrought to my beloved,” he says quiet and solemn, steady even when Dex’s breath catches at the word ‘beloved’. Instead his hand moves from Dex’s shoulder to his face, cradling it gently until Dex looks into his eyes.   

“Would that I could fight its actions; wishing won't change that they happened. But I would fight for you. I would fight; the sun.”

What a sap.

Dex could so easily break this quietly intense moment. There are chirps and teases to be made, but he finds himself frozen. For the first time since Nursey showed up, Dex is finally conscious and coherent enough to see and understand what Nursey is expressing.

Nursey is worried about him.

Nursey drove all the way to Samwell for him.

Nursey did research and brought things for him to find relief.

Nursey just called him his beloved and is fondly holding his face.

Oh.

“So, are you going to kiss me now, or is there a second verse?” he says quietly, smiling as encouragingly and sincerely as he knows how.

The twinkle in Derek’s eye as he leans down makes those butterflies return with a vengeance. And then the kiss happens and Dex is surprised he doesn’t float right up off the bed for how light he feels under the dry, closed mouth, warm, _tender_ kisses.

Nursey pulls back and they both smile, a little caught up in the moment before Dex opens his mouth.

“We’re supposed to be cooling me down, not heating me up,” he chirps and Nursey gently thwacks him on the side of the head.

“Punk,” he says fondly as he stands and grabs the pitcher of tea, walking towards the bathroom. “That’s why I just kissed you and didn’t crawl into bed with you,” he says over his shoulder as he walks away.

“Well, look at you with a plan,” Will shoots back as he sits up slowly, feeling much better still, now that he’s had some food and a respectable amount of liquid to get hydrated again.

He really looks around the room now, seeing more of what Nursey got at the store to take care of him. There’s more than he thought there would be. Again, more than he can probably afford. Hell, there’s a bag full of clothes at the foot of the bed and Dex really hopes there’s a receipt for some of this.

“What’s with the face?” Derek asks, startling Dex a little, as he walks back into the room.

“Dude, how much money did you drop at Target?” Dex asks by way of an answer.

Nursey shrugs, all chill and unaffected even though his ears are still tinged red from his blush from their kissing, “Why does that matter?”

“Because I have to pay you back?” Dex asks, a little annoyed already because, duh.  

“Why? Can’t a guy buy stuff to take care of his boyfriend?” Nursey asks, looking very pleased with himself. Why does smug have to look so good on his stupidly handsome face?

“Am I your boyfriend?” Dex asks back, wanting that cleared up before they get to the what’s owed part again.

The smugness fades into something closer to fond again as he says, “Well, yeah. I mean, only if you want to.”

Dex doesn’t really think before he speaks again.

“Yeah, I want that. But what about all this stuff?” he asks gesturing at the bags, even as Nursey crosses the room and comes to sit on the bed with him, next to him.

“You don’t need to worry about it, Dex. As evidenced the fact that you’re worried about paying me back I know you’re not just using me for my dad’s credit card.”

“No!” Dex interrupts because he knows how much Nursey hates it when people just assume he’ll pick up the check, or that he’s always down for spending ridiculous amounts of money at all times.

“Exactly babe,” he says gently, “I wanted to get stuff so you wouldn’t be miserable and my dad isn’t going to notice an extra trip to the store. I promise, it’s okay.”

“Fine,” Dex allows with a sigh, letting that casual ‘babe’ warm his heart more than he should. “Show me what else there is?”

As Nursey starts pulling the rest of his purchases out of the bag, Dex relaxes again, still a little uncomfortable with what had to be an expensive trip to the store. But he’s thinking he can get over it; most of the stuff is general enough he can sneak the extras into the closet Bitty set up with random first aid supplies.

But then Nursey gets the bag of clothes from the sporting goods store and pulls out one of those fancy shirts. The kind that wick away sweat to keep athletes cool even if they’re working hard outside. Dex runs hot so he doesn’t use those shirts for hockey, mostly because they’re kind of outside his budget. Nursey is explaining that when he goes back to work he needs to keep his sunburn covered and this is the best solution to the problem.

Dex kind of nods along, unwilling to argue and interrupt for once in his life, simply enjoying the way Nursey’s words wash over him. He smiles at the happy look on Nur- his _boyfriend_ ’s face and realizes something. Despite their many, many differences maybe they’re similar in at least one way.

They do what has to be done.

Nobody told Nursey to drive up and take care of Dex. Nobody told him to look up sunburn remedies and stop at the store. He just knew what needed happen and took steps to accomplish it.

Although, given they’re dating each other now, maybe they’ve got one more thing in common too.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! :D


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